biostem

I think an important distinction to make is whether we are talking about how our characters perform in-game, or as their players envision them performing on a more narrative level. For instance, even a level 1 "squishy" human character can survive multiple gunshots, but from a storytelling standpoint, you'd likely depict them taking cover, using distractions or misdirection, etc, just to take down a few enemies - not standing nearly toe-to-toe while exchanging gunshots.

There are polite or courteous ways of summoning & fighting Ada, and there are selfish ones. I wouldn't say there are any "obligations", though...

Gravity is one of the most "blastery" controller primaries. I rarely find that I need other attacks. I did notice that you didn't list crush, the ST immobilize - take it! It's mag 4 and helps set up containment. I also like to include stealth, so I can avoid unwanted fights, can get a bit better positioning before I start one, and it can take a LotG global recharge IO...

Are you saying to offer lower level versions of those IOs, or to make them all attuned from the get-go?

You'd have to recode all powers to be able to affect yourself, then you'd have to adjust the self-affecting portion to grant lesser values. Next, you'd have to adjust power costs, recharges, and durations to further limit how powerful they'd be. Just play an AT or powerset that already has self-affecting buffs/powers...

I've gotten the best results with setting 1 of the color options to black, and the other to something bright - you then get a hint of that second color, at least... but, yeah - it's annoying.

Right, but it won't let you do anything with that first build until you do place those slots, and without using a respec, you still wouldn't be able to 6-slot that lvl 49 power pick.

I wonder how difficult or unbalancing it would be to have an option to still level up, but just not place any enh slots "yet"...

I just can't seem to enjoy playing dominators. Controllers, I can have fun with. Blasters and melee ATs I enjoy, but the combination of ranged, melee, control, and seemingly no sustain or other such buff powers just makes dominators feel like a slog for me. I've even forced myself to get one to 50 and do the whole "perma-dom" thing, and still, it just isn't my cup of tea...

A earth support/seismic defender or seismic/earth corruptor would be able to get 2 meteorites, and an earth/earth controller would get 2 stone golems - both big no-no's. The powers should, in a sense, mimic what stone armor grants, only in ally buff form.

It would be interesting if dark powers could, for lack of a better term, be given a "bright" color option, much like how most other sets can get a dark one...

Their whole schtick is the transformation abilities. They may not be everyone's cup of tea, but dwarf form is there. Kheldians are supposed to be the jack-of-all trades ATs. Whether they live up to that is another story entirely, but I don't think shoehorning status protection in their human forms, (PBs do already have light form, to boot), is the answer...

I'm fine with just fighting them in CoH proper. Not sure why I should care to see what Hellions or Malta are like in a Marvel system, TBH...

I'll give you an example, but please keep in mind that I did this a very quick and dirty way. For a more useful method, you'd probably want to do a bind_load_file_silent to separately bind enter to begin_chat with the desired colors, instead of the quick one I did that triggers the costume change every time. /bind f1 "cc0$$beginchat <color red> <bgcolor white> <border red> "

You are missing what I'm saying. I believe there is an issue with trying to use certain key combinations as triggers for binds. As a test, I created a brand new character, with 3 different costumes, and bound both a costume change and a chat color change to single keys, (in this case, F1, F2, & F3), and it works fine:

Just to be clear - if you set the bind to use a single key, instead of a combination of keys, does it work or no? The entire reason I brought that up is that I have tried using alt, shift, and ctrl in conjunction with other keys, and it never seemed to work correctly for me, yet shift+mousechord, alt+mousechord, shift+lbutton, etc, all DID work fine...

I know the WIKI shows you can bind shift, alt, and ctrl to be used in conjunction with other keys, but in my own testing, this doesn't seem to work properly. I realize you've already put a lot of work into this, but try using binds to 3 different keys, directly, and not as a combination of keypresses. I may be off the mark here, but I suspect trying to use those key combinations is messing things up...

I use the function keys to change costumes - why not do something similar, only including the chat text color commands as well?

In those cases I leave the actual power icon somewhere else on another tray, or just listen for the "still recharging" sound...

If the macro had 2 powexec commands, with hasten as the first to execute, then it'll trigger the second power while hasten is still recharging, IIRC...

I can't remember where I heard it, but the gist is that locks keep honest people honest; They won't stop a determined intruder...

Another request to "genericize" the sets. You, the player, get to choose which sets you play, and there is no excuse nowadays that you don't know what you're getting yourself into with each choice. Further, there are more options now than ever, to mitigate or work around each sets' shortcomings. Play to your chosen sets' strengths, and use the tools available to compensate for their weaknesses...

The thing is, (at least IMO), the "origin power pools" are NOT meant to have the same kind of broad appeal and application as the generic ones. Ranged attacks are vanishingly rare in power pools, so while I think arcane bolt could use some work, it is one of the only options available to ATs that would otherwise have to wait until their APPs/PPPs to get them. Spirit ward and enflame are extremely case-specific in their utility, but at least enflame can be used offensively. I think spirit ward could stand to be made into a click power, or maybe even a PBAoE that also affects the caster, (albeit at adjusted levels of +absorb). The fact that rune of protection bestows status protection and dmg res, and can even break one out of status effects IIRC, makes it quite powerful - but again we come back to a similar argument to the fighting pool - these powers aren't strictly necessary, and watering down the opportunity cost of getting those more desirable powers is not, (again IMHO), NOT a good thing...

What I meant was odd about how toxic dart behaved was that the containment effect was front-loaded lethal damage, whereas the power only does a trivial amount of it, then a larger amount of toxic DoT...

One interesting little quirk I've found is that toxic dart from experimentation, does a big chunk of extra lethal damage upfront, for its containment effect - probably to avoid weird behaviors from it's primarily toxic DoT effect. It also animates and recharges quickly...